Bernard Collaery will be allowed聽to make public certain information in his trial. While he should not have to face a trial聽at all for helping his client, Witness K, this is a positive step, writes Jim McIlroy.
Michaelia Cash
Blackmail charges brought against Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMMEU) leaders John Setka and Shaun Reardon were dropped by Victorian prosecutors on May 16 in a major embarrassment for the federal government鈥檚 trade union royal commission, police and prosecutors.
Tony Abbott was elected in 2013 on the 鈥減romise鈥 that the Coalition鈥檚 proposed industrial relations legislation, Work Choices, was 鈥渄ead, buried and cremated鈥.
Of course, few workers genuinely believed that an incoming Coalition government would keep its word. Certainly, construction workers knew it was only a matter of time before they were in the firing line.
As we go to press, the federal employment minister Michaelia Cash is being hounded 鈥 rightly 鈥 for yet another gross breach of her parliamentary office.
While Cash continues to deny she has done anything wrong, one of her staffers has resigned for allegedly tipping off the corporate media on October 24 that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) were about to raid the Melbourne and Sydney offices of the Australian Workers Union (AWU).